Bulgaria

In January 2012, the penetration rate of fixed broadband is 16% of the population, still 11.7 p.p. below the EU average of 27.7%.
Bulgaria has 84.8% of fixed lines providing speeds of 10 Mbps and above, 22.8% of lines providing speeds between 30Mbps and below 100Mbps and 0.2% of fixed lines providing speeds equal or above 100 Mbps. The percentage of lines above 10Mbps is 36.4 p.p. above the EU average rate of 48.4% of lines in this speed range.
Mobile broadband penetration is 14.4%.
In 2011 46% of the population use the internet regularly (eg at least once a week) below the EU average of 68%. 46% of citizens have never used the internet. Take-up of eCommerce is below EU average (43%), with only 7% of the population buying online.6.1% of businesses purchased online, and 3.2% sold online, while 3.1% of SMEs sold online.
eGovernment usage by citizens in 2011 is the third lowest in the EU27 at 25% with a slight increase from 2010. In 2009, business expenditure on R&D (BERD) in the ICT sectors amounted to 7 mio €.The share of ICT in total BERD is fairly low, at just above 13%.